Summary

Colour aerial photograph of the construction of the Kodak factory complex at Coburg, 1965.

View from the south-east corner of the complex. To the front and left of the complex is Building 6, the Distribution Centre, Diagonally across from Building 6 is Buliding 8, Head Office with a car park and cleared piece of land in front of it. To the left, alongside Building 6 are three single storey buildings, from left to right: Building 5, where sheet film was made; Building 4, where roll film was produced and Building 3, the Emulsion Coating building. To the right and back of the complex, is Building 11, featuring the chimney and water cooling towers of the Power House. Adjacent to the Power House is Building 12, the engineering workshops. Far right is Building 20, Processing.

Construction of the Kodak factory complex in Coburg began in 1957 on 23 hectares of former farmland. Since 1908, Kodak had been operating from the factory in Abbotsford and had gradually outgrown the premises. The Abbotsford factory remained operational while the Coburg plant was being built until it closed in1966. Architect Harry Norris of H A & F L Norris & Associates, created the design for the new factory and individual buildings for the manufacture of silver halide photographic products. The building contract was awarded to Lewis Constructions Pty Ltd. The still uncompleted complex was officially opened on 14 April 1961 by the Prime Minister, Robert G. Menzies with Dr. A Chapman, President of Eastman Kodak Company, in attendance. The complex was the national headquarters of Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd.

Kodak manufactured and distributed a wide range of photographic products to Australasia, such as film, paper, chemicals, cameras and miscellaneous equipment. Its client base included amateur and professional photographers, as well as specialist medical and graphic art professionals who used photography, x-ray and other imaging techniques.

This photograph is part of the Kodak collection of products, promotional materials, photographs and working life artefacts collected from Kodak Australasia in 2005, when the Melbourne manufacturing plant at Coburg closed down.

Description of Content

Photograph of an aerial view of a factory complex. In the foreground and to the right of the image is suburban housing and cleared land. The factory complex features in the fore and mid ground of the image. To the right is a multi-storey building with a car park in front. To the left of this is a row of single storey buildings. To the far right are water cooling towers and a chimney. In the background of the image is suburban housing and an open tract of land.

Physical Description

Colour photograph printed on medium weight paper with a white border.

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